This invention relates to a soy cheese spread and a process for making same.
Because of a recent expansion in the use of cheese spreaded bread as a meal or a main meal supplement into countries where such a food has not been customarily used (particularly the Asian countries), the need for such spreadable products has increased accordingly. Most spreadable cheese products are made with dairy products derived from mammalian milk (primarily cow milk). Needless to say, such dairy products are presently in short supply in many of these countries and future supply will even become less because of the limited land area available for raising dairy animals and feeds therefor, particularly in view of the rapidly expanding population. It is well known that soybeans have a very high protein content and represent a much more productive source of protein than dairy animals. Therefore, considerable effort has been directed toward making an acceptable spreadable cheese-like product using soybean derived products as a primary raw material.
Examples of prior art attempts to produce such a spreadable product are disclosed by S. J. Circle and D. W. Johnson, "Edible Isolated Soybean Protein and Processed Plant Protein Foodstuffs," Academic Press, New York (1958) and in Japanese Patent Open Publication No. 11,973/1972. In the process described in the former publication, a spreadable, creamy cheesylike product is made by blending a soy proteinate (an alkali metal salt of soy protein), a hydrogenated vegetable oil, water and salt. Since this soy cheese product is not fermented, it does not have particularly acceptable spreading and oral melting properties and lacks flavor taste characteristics normally associated with cheese spreads made from dairy products.
In the process described in the latter publication, a sauce or dressing-like cheesy product is prepared by blending a blue cheese produced by fermenting a soy protein curd from a soy milk, containing butter fat and powdered skim milk, with an inoculum of Penicillium roguefortii and aging the curd with another kind of dairy cheese. Thus, this product requires dairy ingredients to provide spreadability.
To the best of our knowledge, a soy cheese spread not containing dairy product ingredients and having acceptable spreadability, oral melting and flavor characteristics heretofore has not been available. The difficulty in successfully producing an acceptable spread from soybeans at least is partially due to the peculiar characteristics of soy globulin which has a much higher water binding capacity (water-holding property) than casein and tends to gel upon being heated, resulting in poor spreadability and oral melting properties in the processed products produced therefrom. Products made from soybeans also tend to have an undesirable beany taste. Furthermore, the texture of spreads made from soybean sources usually have a grainy texture in comparison to the smooth, uniform texture normally associated with spreads made from dairy cheeses.